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Young composer, young musicians— and grownup emotions
Curtis grads play Schubert trios
Tom Purdom
The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society's latest Sunday afternoon concert was another example of a PCMS event devoted to certified classics. The two entries on the program were two of the best-loved pieces in the chamber repertoire: the two piano trios Franz Schubert wrote for three friends in 1828.
The program featured three of the most successful graduates produced by the Curtis Institute in the past two decades. Ignat Solzhenitsyn doesn't create the tone colors I hear in some of the pianists I've listened to lately, but he doesn't need to. He achieves effects like the gaiety of the first movement of the B-Flat trio with tempo, melody and controlled dynamics.
Quality ensemble work
Sophie Shao contributed some beautiful cello solos in the all-important passages in which the cello sets the mood; and Soovin Kim demonstrated his noteworthy ability to assume any mood or style he encounters. I've heard Kim play music by composers as varied as Vivaldi, Paganini, Bartok and Charles Ives, and he sounded completely at home with all of them. In this case, I was particularly impressed with the way he supplied a properly modulated Viennese lilt when it was required.
Kim is fully capable of dominating the stage when he's the soloist but he fitted into the ensemble like a born team player. One of the major virtues of the performance was the quality of the ensemble work in the innumerable passages in which all three instruments play together.
The big attraction: The composer
But good as the musicians were, the big attraction at this event was the music. Schubert's two piano trios are the opening entries in a string of great piano trios that includes Brahms's two contributions to the form, Ravel's 1914 trio, and Shostakovich's incredible Second Piano Trio. Beethoven and Haydn wrote piano trios too, but Schubert was the first composer to exploit the combination's expressive potential and its opportunities for strong contrasts. The piano trio combines three of the most expressive instruments in the Western music chest and offers the composer two powerful contrasts: between the piano and the strings, and between the violin and the darker, soulful voice of the cello.
The result, in Schubert's hands, was a pair of compositions that evoke a wide range of emotions and offer their listeners a continuous stream of musical effects. Schubert gave his friends his best shot.
One perennial of the chamber music scene is the observer who frets about the age of the audience. Anyone who loves these pieces knows why chamber music audiences tend to be older than Olympic swimmers. Schubert was only 31 when he penned his piano trios, but they evoke grownup emotions, and you can hear new things in them every time you give them your attention. What's more, you can come back to them, year after year, as long as your walker or your electric chair will get you to the concert hall.
To read a response, click here.
The program featured three of the most successful graduates produced by the Curtis Institute in the past two decades. Ignat Solzhenitsyn doesn't create the tone colors I hear in some of the pianists I've listened to lately, but he doesn't need to. He achieves effects like the gaiety of the first movement of the B-Flat trio with tempo, melody and controlled dynamics.
Quality ensemble work
Sophie Shao contributed some beautiful cello solos in the all-important passages in which the cello sets the mood; and Soovin Kim demonstrated his noteworthy ability to assume any mood or style he encounters. I've heard Kim play music by composers as varied as Vivaldi, Paganini, Bartok and Charles Ives, and he sounded completely at home with all of them. In this case, I was particularly impressed with the way he supplied a properly modulated Viennese lilt when it was required.
Kim is fully capable of dominating the stage when he's the soloist but he fitted into the ensemble like a born team player. One of the major virtues of the performance was the quality of the ensemble work in the innumerable passages in which all three instruments play together.
The big attraction: The composer
But good as the musicians were, the big attraction at this event was the music. Schubert's two piano trios are the opening entries in a string of great piano trios that includes Brahms's two contributions to the form, Ravel's 1914 trio, and Shostakovich's incredible Second Piano Trio. Beethoven and Haydn wrote piano trios too, but Schubert was the first composer to exploit the combination's expressive potential and its opportunities for strong contrasts. The piano trio combines three of the most expressive instruments in the Western music chest and offers the composer two powerful contrasts: between the piano and the strings, and between the violin and the darker, soulful voice of the cello.
The result, in Schubert's hands, was a pair of compositions that evoke a wide range of emotions and offer their listeners a continuous stream of musical effects. Schubert gave his friends his best shot.
One perennial of the chamber music scene is the observer who frets about the age of the audience. Anyone who loves these pieces knows why chamber music audiences tend to be older than Olympic swimmers. Schubert was only 31 when he penned his piano trios, but they evoke grownup emotions, and you can hear new things in them every time you give them your attention. What's more, you can come back to them, year after year, as long as your walker or your electric chair will get you to the concert hall.
To read a response, click here.
What, When, Where
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society: Schubert, Piano Trio in B-Flat Major; Piano Trio in E-Flat Major. Soovin Kim, violin; Sophie Shao, cello; Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano. February 22, 2008 at American Philosophical Society, Benjamin Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut St. (215) 569-8080 or pcmsconcerts.org.
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